Tag: Poppy Dennison

Review: Belligerent Beta (Pack Partners #2) by Poppy Dennison

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Belligerent Beta coverBeta Dan Keller always assumed he would take over the pack as Alpha if anything should happen to their leader.  But when the dead Alpha’s son chooses a human to become Alpha and lead their pack, Dan wasn’t sure of his place in the pack or his position.  With ex cop Lex Tompkins as Alpha and new pack members, there is a lot of adjusting to do by all. One of the youngest members is also one who is having the most problems.  Nathan Ross, the Omega of the pack, has a troubled past that has not only made him a target to other wolves but left him unable to shift as well.

When Lex suggests to Dan that he needs to get more involved with pack members, become a true beta, Dan never anticipated that the one who needed him the most would be Nathan.  But a broken down car and a offered ride gives Dan a chance to get to know Nathan and to his surprise he finds he likes the shy man hiding behind poor posture and long bangs.  When trouble arrives in pack territory and local animals turn up dead, all clues points to Nathan as the culprit.

Will Nathan and Dan’s friendship and burgeoning romance be lost just as its getting started or will the belligerent beta find his true strength in time to protect a man he wants for his own?

This is such a cute series.  Accidental Alpha, the first story, revolved around an ex cop Lex Tompkins who gets bitten by a neighbor’s toddler which turned him into a shifter and pack Alpha.  The kid was/is adorable and the situation Lex found himself in was funny with a few serious elements attached.  Belligerent Beta is a perfect title for Dan Keller who is still smarting at being passed over for Alpha and by a child no less.  Dan is aloof, intimidating, and in a quandary over his role in the pack.   The story picks up with the pack and Lex still adjusting  to the new order and Lex’s new powers.  Nathan, a young Omega wolf, in jeopardy in Accidental Alpha remains troubled here for an unknown yet hinted at reason.

Nathan’s character is a little shaky here.  His history is one he only told to the last Alpha with hints of abuse or something equally horrific.  He is naive or ignorant about shifter culture.  And his inability to shift has caused him to withdraw even further into himself.  I expected more from Nathan’s history than is revealed here.  Either the reader still doesn’t have the whole story on Nathan or some of the implications were too overwrought,  Either way I felt his character could have used some additional information or substance.  Did that keep me from liking Nathan?  Absolutely not.  As someone in need of support and compassion, Nathan hits all the right buttons in order to connect with him.  Who did I love?  Well, that would be Dan.  Big, gruff, isolated Dan.   Dan is a character that you like the more he opens up and that happens as gradually as it can over 97 pages. And when Dan finally starts to get to know and get closer to Nathan its as cute as a puppy pile.  That’s the best part of this story. It’s heartwarming and so sweet.

If you are looking for drama or angst here, you won’t find it.  That element is almost completely missing from this story.  Any hints of turmoil or large crisis such as we saw in the first story are just so much smoke or a quick reference to Lex’s continued adjustment to his new shifter status.  This is a sweet, adorable romance..  The couple is endearing and they make a perfect pair.  When you are finished,  I think you will find you were happy you spent more time with this pack and their latest mate pairing.  Poppy Dennison continues to flesh out her portrait of this pack and their members with each new story.  I’m not sure who is next up in the series, but I can’t wait to find out.

Cover art by Wilde City Press.  I would call that model a wonderful bear but this is about wolves after all.

Buy Links:    Wilde City Press          Amazon                 ARe

Book Details:

ebook, 97 pages
Published May 14th 2014 by Wilde City Press
original titleBelligerent Beta
ISBN139781925031008
edition languageEnglish
url http://www.wildecity.com/books/gay-romance/belligerent-beta/#.U2hU16JQ7sc
seriesPack Partners #2

Pack Partners Series:

Accidental Alpha  (Pack Partners #1)
Belligerent Beta (Pack Partners #2)

Review: Accidental Alpha (Pack Partners, #1) by Poppy Dennison

Book Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Accidental Alpha coverOne year ago police officer Lex Tompkins was stabbed while on the job.  The severity of the wounds and the long recovery time meant disability and retirement for Lex as he could no longer physically do his job.  Bitter, Lex withdraws from everyone he knows, buying seven acres in the middle of nowhere to hide in and retreat from society.  But almost from the beginning his plans go awry. Lex has a neighbor when his real estate agent promised him none.  And that neighbor, Spencer Robinson, always seems to have a ton of people at his house and a party going on.  Plus the guy isn’t even Lex’s type.

When a toddler shows up alone in Lex’s front yard, he knows that there is only one place he could have come from. Lex picks the kid up and starts to head across the street when the toddler bites the heck out of his neck.  Lex passes out and the next moment wakes up in Spencer’s house as the new Alpha werewolf of a small and dysfunctional pack of werewolves.

Faced with new responsibilities that he doesn’t want, Lex also finds himself attracted to Spencer, someone he never looked twice at before.  What’s a bitter excop to do when Fate rearranges his life in ways he never imagined?

Poppy Dennison became a go to author of mine when I started reading her Triad series (now at book four). So when I saw that she had a new shifter story out, I knew I had to have it.  Accidental Alpha, the first in the Pack Partners series, starts with a hysterical premise, what happens when a toddler accidentally turns a person into a werewolf? I love it when an author gives me a new twist on a popular genre and that’s exactly what Dennison has delivered here.

Dennison has created a unique pack structure for her werewolf story which includes the toddler’s position within it and the reason why he bit Lex in the first place.  This is a small and somewhat dysfunctional pack with a few shifters hanging at the outskirts of the core group that is not getting along without leadership.  Into this interesting group dynamics, Dennison thrusts her disabled alpha cop, Lex Tompkins.  I really liked his character, he comes across as a hard core cop who loved his job.  And the type of personality that it takes to be a cop is exactly the type of leadership needed in an Alpha.  I liked the manner in which Dennison  connects those dots not only for the reader  but for Lex as well.  Lex is a man in need of a job that requires him to police and take care of people and that is exactly what he gets again.

This pack is made up of some very damaged, sad, and angry shifters. Each comes with their own set of challenges that Lex must first decipher and then deal with.  That includes his very strong attraction to Spencer which is clearly a werewolf thing Lex needs to get figure out immediately before his own behavior gets out of control.  I liked the pack that the author has created for this story.  There’s the toddler, Aiden, who is quite adorable.  His mother Mia, two special special favorites of mine Ruby and Nathan, Justin and more.  And then there is Spencer, the neighbor and perhaps potential mate.  I connected with the character of Spencer as well.  Quiet and unassuming, he has a reserve to him that works when the rest of the pack is spiraling out of control.  Its a nice yin and yang  sort of relationship that will evolve with the story and the series.  It’s also a lovely change from the wham bam mate thing that overwhelms characterization and plot that I so often read in shifter stories. Poppy Dennsion sets out a structure for not only the pack but for acquiring mates as well.

The ending of Accidental Alpha sees Lex, Spencer and the rest slowly adjusting to each other and the change in pack dynamics.   It’s a new start for them all and an appropriate place to end the first book in the series.  Poppy Dennison had laid her ground work while still leaving room to flesh out the personalities and back history of the individual pack members.  I also expect to learn more about Lex as well.   Accidental Alpha leaves me wanting more of the Pack Partners series and that’s exactly what it should do.  Great job, Poppy Dennison.  I can’t wait to see what will happen next.  Please don’t make us wait too long.

Cover Art © 2013 Wilde City Press Photo by Kent Taylor, courtesy http://www.ragingstallion.com  What a perfect cover!  That’s Lex exactly.

Book Details:

ebook, 56 pages
Published September 11th 2013 by Wilde City Press

Review: Creature Feature by Poppy Dennison and Mary Calmes

Creature Feature coverRating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Diagnosis Wolf by Poppy Dennison  

Rating: 4 stars

Andrew Hughes life sucks and its all due to his twin brother.  For as long as Andrew can remember his twin has caused problems for everyone, especially Andrew.  His brother has gambled, lied, then stolen Andrew’s identity and savings. This has left  Andrew miles deep in debt, with an unsalvagable credit rating, and scrambling to rebuild his life and move forward.  Andrew can’t afford to be choosy, so when his temp agency offers him a job with a client that has run off all other nurses, he takes it for the money he can’t afford to turn down.

His client is Caleb DiMartino and no one will let him see his chart or tell Andrew what illness his new client has.  Caleb comes with armed body guards, a mansion and an intimidating father.  But the pale unconscious patient pulls Andrew in and Andrew wants to help him despite the mystery that surrounds him.  But the truth behind Caleb’s  illness will bring Andrew’s brother back into his life and pose a threat to Andrew and Caleb that neither expects.

Diagnosis Wolf spells out  the problem in the title and wolf shifters is something that Poppy Dennison is very familiar with.  She has her own take on wolf shifters and does a great job in creating a universe for them and Andrew.  Andrew is a lovely, sympathetic character whose twin brother has made his life miserable their entire lives.  I liked that Andrew had reached a point with his twin where he no longer enabled his twin’s problems (that his brother stole his identity and savings helped push Andrew over the edge).  I loved that Andrew was a nurse and his empathic caring nature made it plausible that he would stay with Caleb, even as the situation escalated past complicated and into scary.

I had some issues with the villain of the piece because I kept wondering how it was that the rest of the pack had not figured it out. And maybe a little more exposition would have been nice with respect to Andrew’s brother, Danny and his future at the end.  But those issues aside, I loved Poppy’s wolf shifter culture, especially when it came down to the mate bite and the politics surrounding it.  So nicely done and the complexities surrounding the status of the bite made the “aha” moment more angst and adrenaline filled.  It also made the slow build to a permanent relationship between Caleb and Andrew extremely satisfying at the end.  All in all, a really lovely story.

Landslide by Mary Calmes

Rating 4.5 stars

Courier Frank Corrigan is injured again and while he is waiting for his wounds to heal, he gets a call from his sister, Lindsey.  Lindsey is in trouble as usual, but this time her impetuousness has lead her to  get bitten by a werewolf who just so happens NOT to be her fiance.  And the wedding is this week and she doesn’t know what to do and needs her big brother now.  Frank feels certain that his boss, the demon Cael Berith has the solution to his sister’s problems.  But Frank is also  certain that there will be a price to be paid for Cael’s assistance.  Cael told Frank that Frank was Cael’s mate. That was three years ago and Cael’s patience is running out.  With a love hungry demon on one side and a werewolf sister to be on the other, what will Frank do to save the situation and perhaps his love life in the bargain?

I will admit this was my favorite story of the two.  It was perfect Mary Calmes in every way from the characters involved to the plot.  First let’s take a look at the characters.  Paranormal courier Frank Corrigan is tall, a former Marine who just so happens to be a mihr.  A mihr is a mutant human who has all the typical human frailties except that he cannot be influenced by any otherworldly magic or glamour or tricks.  And in the universe Mary Calmes has created for Landslide, this makes Frank the perfect go between the paranormal beings.  It seems that wolf shifters, vampires, ghouls, demons and what have you exist openly in human society.  All must register with Homeland Security and various rules and regulations apply to their movement and existence within human societies.  Take everything currently going on with border regulations and green cards, illegal aliens and extrapolate that  times ten and you begin to get the picture that Calmes is so vividly painting for us.

Into this world, we meet Frank, a bundle of complexities.  A former Marine with excellent combat skills, he also has huge self image issues and an abusive family in the background that has made him doubt his  worth and attractiveness.  His friends are a odd group of non humans, and his sister is his one family member who loves and supports him.  Frank also has a secret that is helping to keep the one person he wants at a distance.  And that would be his current boss who also claims Frank is his mate.

Incubus demon Cael Berith is 1,000 years old and only now has he found his mate in Frank Corrigan.  But misunderstandings and Frank’s insecurities have kept them apart for three years and a demon can only take so much frustration.  Cael is such a mouthwatering character.  He has so many facets to his personality.  Scary demon, check.  Romantic suitor? Check. Patience personified? Check and check.  Mary Calmes makes us see Cael in all of his dimensions and still gives us a character to fall in love with.  And when you add him to the soft, insecure and honorable Frank Corrigan, well then, just sit back and watch the sparks fly.

Typical of a Mary Calmes story we also are given  memorable secondary characters too from the  werewolf called Charming to Sheriff Gordy Roller.  All perfectly drawn with interesting layers of their own.  As the ending neared, I found myself wanting to know more about Lindsey’s future and other peripheral characters.  And I wanted  more of what life had in store for Frank and Cael.

And that is almost always the issue with these anthologies or collections.  If the plots are well done and the characters engaging, then when I reach the end I find myself wishing for more.  But Creature Feature has plenty to offer from Poppy Dennison and Mary Calmes in terms of great stories and characters that will stay with you.  Pick up some popcorn and settle in for an afternoon double  feature.  You are going to love it.

Cover Art by Paul Richmond  just takes you back to the theatre and the Saturday matinees with the double features and creatures galore.  Just perfect.